just as grandma's cookie jar should always be full of good things, this blog will be full of good ideas, information, activities and reviews of things to help grandma . . . and grandpa, mom and dad too . . . pass on a heritage of faith to the children in their lives!

Monday, May 16, 2011

"God is Already There!"

My current "grandma's pick" is the Grandmother's Bible from Zondervan. I love this Bible . . . it is the NIV and has one year of devotions in the text - great tool for reading through the Bible in a year! While I love these features, the thing I especially love about this Bible is the focus it provides for doing what it says on the cover, "nourishing grandmothers to nurture grandchildren"! I feel nourished when I read this Bible and love how it gives me specific things to think about and pray about to nurture my grandson! This Bible is a "must" for every grandma! Don't forget . . . as soon as I have 25 facebook "likes" on my blog, I'll give one of these Bibles away, I'll give another away when we reach 35 "likes" and one more when we reach "50" likes! If you haven't "liked" my blog using the tab in the "find us on facebook" box ON MY BLOG, please take a moment to do so right now! Please also tell other grandmas, grandpas, moms and dads you know so they can "like" it, too!

So, this morning I read from Deuteronomy 30:19,20 - 31:1-8 "I'm calling for heaven and earth to give witness against you this very day. I'm offering you the choice of life or death. You can choose either blessings or curses. But I want you to choose life. Then you and your children will live. And you will love the Lord your God. You will obey him. You will remain true to him. The Lord is your very life. He will give you many years in the land. He took an oath. He promised to give that land to your fathers. He promised it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Here are the words I spoke to all of the people of Israel. I said, "I am now 120 years old. I'm not able to lead you anymore. The Lord has said to me, 'You will not go across the Jordan River.' "The Lord your God himself will go across ahead of you. He'll destroy the nations that are there in order to make room for you. You will take over their land. Joshua will also go across ahead of you, just as the Lord said he would. "The Lord will do to those nations what he did to Sihon and Og. He destroyed those Amorite kings along with their land. The Lord will hand those nations over to you. Then you must do to them everything I've commanded you to do. "Be strong and brave. Don't be afraid of them. Don't be terrified because of them. The Lord your God will go with you. He will never leave you. He'll never desert you." Then I sent for Joshua. I spoke to him in front of all of the people of Israel. I said, "Be strong and brave. You must go with these people. They are going into the land the Lord promised with an oath to give to their fathers. You must divide it up among them. They will each receive their share. The Lord himself will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will never leave you. He'll never desert you. So don't be afraid. Don't lose hope."Then I read the devotion in my Grandmother's Bible - "God is Already There". The first sentence is, "Don't you think we should delight in seeing ourselves the way God does?" Wow. This question is enough to get me thinking for the entire day. The rest of the devotional isn't even needed! Or at least this is what I think, until I read the second sentence, "Then we can go out and share our best with the world." Wow, again! The remaining sentences in this devotional continue to challenge and encourage! This particular devotional is written by Barbara Johnson and is one certain to get you thinking and praising God! It sure did this for me! The devotional ends with a prayer, "Dear Lord, thank You for being in my today, my yesterday and my tomorrows. Let me feel Your presence and Your strength as I face each new challenge, each opportunity to make the world a better and more loving place. Amen." Did I mention one of the aims for this Bible was to "nourish grandmothers"? I certainly feel nourished! (And if you are a grandfather, mom or dad, you will feel nourished as well!)

Then the best part . . . the "grandchild in focus prayer" It instructs me to select one of my grandchildren to focus on in prayer for the next two weeks and provides guidance for me to pray for my grandchild in the area of salvation; asking God to guide him to His gift of salvation! I completely LOVE the "grandchild in focus prayers"! There is absolutely nothing more important to me than seeing my grandson come to know, love and walk with God all his life! I most sincerely appreciate how the Grandmother's Bible helps me focus my prayers for him!

And then, as if today's devotional wasn't enough, I turned back one page in my Bible to Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 and found a "Praying the Scriptures" feature. The focus is "guidance" and it led me in personalizing these verses to pray them to God for my grandchild . . . which I personalized even more as follows; "This day, O Lord, I pray Josiah will choose life, so he and his children may live, and he may love You, the Lord his God. I pray Josiah will listen to Your voice and hold fast to You for You are his life." I will make this my prayer every day . . . for Josiah, and for Caleb!

I'm sure you can tell I absolutely love the Grandmother's Bible . . . for good reason! I look forward to tomorrow's devotional, but have much to think - and pray about for today!

1 comment:

LOVE this devotional. Before we begin HE is indeed "already there." PRAYING with and for our family and setting the example for them to turn to GOD in every situation or to just be GRATEFUL is a TREASURE beyond measure :)

About the Author

I am a grandma whose heart has been "stolen" by my three grandsons - I love everything about being "grandma"! To see more about me, check the "about grandma" tab at the top!

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The FTC requires people, such as myself, who write blogs and review product to disclose where the product came from and if it was given to them for review purposes. All curriculum, resources, items for my "Grandma's Pick" and items I review for specific posts/articles are given to me by their publisher and/or manufacturer for free for review and/or give-away purposes. I do not work for any publishers - or other companies - and will do my best to give an un-biased review of the items I review. After my review, I give most of the curriculum to churches to use in their ministries and have drawings among the people who have "liked" and or "followed" my blog with the facebook and follow buttons on the blog for the "Grandma's Pick" give-away items. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising"